Permanent memorial planned to Teessiders killed in sea disaster back in 1947

This is the proposed design for a permanent memorial in Porthcawl to Wales' worst civilian maritime disaster in which the 39 crew members of the SS Samtampa and eight from the Mumbles lifeboat died. It is called the Savage Sea.
Designed by Porthcawl Shout Forum (PSF)

And while a memorial plaque to the 39 crew members and eight lifeboat men is embedded in the rocks that took their lives, a Porthcawl campaign group want to construct a central memorial in the town, close to the sea and harbour, in time to mark the 70th anniversary of what they have branded the town’s “secret tragedy” in 2017.

Porthcawl Shout Forum (PSF) has raised £72,000 needed for the memorial to what chairman Gary Victor called “this unimaginable display of courage and self-sacrifice which is now part of Porthcawl’s maritime heritage”.

Martin Williams, a sculptor who lives and works just a few miles from the Mumbles lifeboat station, has designed the memorial.

“His proposed design is known as the Savage Sea and is three metres high and three metres deep and is to be sculpted from stone quarried in South Wales,” said Gary.

The RNLI lifeboat is set alight after it lost all of its crew and had ran aground trying to save the crew of the Samtampa which ran aground and off loaded its oil cargo at the shores of Sker Rocks near Porthcawl in Glamorgan

The work will incorporate a ring of black granite around the base to signify the ship’s fuel oil in which everyone died.

“The sculpture will also have the latest digital QR code technology installed to allow people to access the full story of the disaster from their smart-phones or tablets.”

Built in America during the war to bring vital supplies to the UK, the Liberty ship Samtampa had been transferred to a British company and was sailing from Middlesbrough to Newport when it entered the Bristol Channel on Wednesday, April 23, 1947.

Caught in a storm, the ship was blown from the north Devon coast across to Porthcawl, where it broke into pieces on Sker Point.

The Mumbles lifeboat launched twice in a desperate bid to save the 39 crewmen but the eight-strong crew, lead by Coxswain William Gammon, also lost their lives.

Coroner’s reports showed that none of the men had drowned, but had been asphyxiated by the thick, black fuel oil that had flowed out of the broken Samtampa.

Several Samtampa and Prince of Wales lifeboat exhibitions are also planned for next year, as are school education programmes in Porthcawl, Mumbles and Middlesbrough.

Lost to the sea

The Samtampa which ran aground and off loaded its oil cargo at the shores of Sker Rocks near Porthcawl in Glamorgan